One Piece

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

It was kind of the same with me, but by a certain point in the series I just started marathoning through entire arcs without even noticing the time go buy. It has a sort of addictive quality for me, I guess. I managed to watch over 250 episodes in the span of a month (which is a lot for me, since I usually don't watch more than an episode or 2 of an anime a day). I think the series is sort of like an acquired taste in that respect, though. Also, I have to say that I still haven't gotten used to reading this manga at one chapter per week, considering how much of the series I read in chunks until I caught up with the story.

[Dr. Insomniac]

I heard volume 50 was supposed to be a good start for those fearing any sort of archive binge. Is that right or not?

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Well, you could probably star reading from there and understand what was going on and all that, but the arcs that come shortly after the Sabaody Archipelago and Amazon arcs (the Impel Down and Marineford arcs) heavily reference earlier parts of the series, what with Luffy teaming up with a lot of his old enemies and adversaries and then heading into a huge war zone to try and rescue his older brother from being executed by the Marines. You could still read and understand those arcs, though, but I feel that they'd be less effective without some knowledge of some of the characters involved them. Still, you could essentially start One Piece at the beginning of just about any given arc and at least understand and enjoy that general arc itself, individually. Though, I do think that OP also best succeeds and interconnecting those stories into one grander plot, all of which kind of culminates into the Marineford arc which ends the first half of the series before the standard major time-skip that is common of long-running shounen series.

Personally, though, if I were to recommend a volume to start at, it'd probably be whichever volume starts the Water Seven arc which also leads directly into the Enies Lobby arc. Those are both entertaining and I do think that beginners could follow and enjoy them quite well.

Still, you could essentially start out OP at other points, so yeah, its worth a shot, including starting at volume 50, but just keep in mind that by that point you probably won't enjoy the arcs as much as you would if you were more familiar with a fair deal more knowledge of the world of One Piece and its major characters.

[Veggie]

Part of it is I also wanna read/watch the series legitimately. So I'm buying small numbers of volumes at a time despite wanting more. Dunno where I'm gonna put 50 volumes of manga though...

But this thread's getting me in the mood to start it up again, so maybe I'll just cave and promise to buy the books/DVD's later.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I'd love to buy the DVDs, but aside from having no money right now, I'm also hoping that FUNimation will eventually take the opportunity to organize all of the releases into major season releases. So far One Piece has been released in 13 episode sets, splitting up each major season into multiple parts. I'd rather just buy a season set with the 60+ episodes that it'll probably contain. to me that'd end up being more bang for my buck. Still, I can't really complain too much about how FUNi has handled the releases. I mean, it could've been worse, like having the entire series released in the form of single sets with only a few episodes each. Now that'd be a pain in the ass.

[Spark Of Spirit]

If that show was released in big chunks like that (30+ episodes) I would consider biting. It's just too much of an investment for me right now, especially considering that there is still other stuff I'm interested in.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I'm not sure if its restricted in Canada or not, but FUNimation has been streaming both the English dub and sub of One Piece for a long time now, and I think that you can find every episode that FUNimation has dubbed (so far) available for streaming on www.onepieceofficial.com, from what I can tell.

Although, having been reading the earlier parts of the story in the manga for the first time, I'd probably recommend the manga over the anime, personally. While the great voice acting in both the dub and the sub (and I never really praise the voice acting for a sub as being so much above average unless there is a certain quality about its voice acting that sticks out to me) as well as the terrific soundtrack and musical scores can make the anime a worthwhile experience, it can often-times have horrible pacing which really hurts and drags down its quality. The manga doesn't really have those pacing problems, from what I've gotten to read of both the early and the latest parts of it.

[Angus]

Funi hasn't really packed in much extras for the boxsets, just approx. one commentary, and the usual original openings/closings.

[Veggie]

Oh wow. Thanks Ensatsu, this is a great source for One Piece episodes.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

No problem. I though I'd mention it since I go their weekly to watch the new episode releases (since FUNi also subs brand new episodes that have just aired in Japan).

[Foggle]

http://www.japanator.com/funimation-suing-1337-people-over-one-piece-481-18346.phtml

lol

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Well, I mean, the episodes are available for streaming in high quality on FUNimation's official One Piece website, so I kind of fail to see the point of downloading an episode that is already "legally" being streamed in the first place. Anyways, the real reason for why FUNi is cracking down hard like this is probably because if they didn't act on it and Toei found out, they'd get pissed again and refuse to let FUNi have the right to legally stream One Piece episodes in the U.S. (again).

[Foggle]

Well, I mean, the episodes are available for streaming in high quality on FUNimation's official One Piece website, so I kind of fail to see the point of downloading an episode that is already "legally" being streamed in the first place.

Yup, thus my "lol."

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Still, I'm surprised that FUNi is going so all-out hardcore on this dude. Oh well, its not me, so I suppose I can just sit back and "lol" at this news, myself.

[Angus]

That's true, although they don't stream all the dubs for the show, and Hulu doesn't extend over to Asia.